I discovered a surprise this evening. A couple of months ago, I bought a German 16 gauge by H. Burgsmuller Gewehrfabrik Kreiesen. From the name, I placed the date between 1876 and 1905. The proof marks place it as pre 1894.
The gun is Belgian proofed, has a steel fore end assembly with both a side swing action lever and a side swing fore end release.
Everything appears normal except a set of Brownell chamber gauges shows the chamber to be a 2-1/4" chamber (exactly). The bores are marked 16.8mm (.663) and they measure exactly that. No choke (and none indicated). The chamber gauges fit precisely in the chamber. The gun just seems to have 2-1/4" chambersd. I have never seen or heard of that (although there were several proprietary brass shell chambers in different lengths). Would that be the answer? I assume the chamber would be a 60mm in Europe.
